News & Blog

As one of the founders of Solarvista Software, a leading UK-based developer of field service management software, I’ve been involved in hundreds of service management software implementation projects, large and small, complex and simple. These implementations are usually shaped as a result of the pre-sale procurement process with the “RFP” or Request for Proposal being at the heart of the “definition”. When software was purchased “the old way”, i.e., with large commitments (the “license fee” and let’s face it, “heavy contracts”) in advance, this made perfect sense. The customer wanted to know what they were getting and be sure of it. Of course, a completely understandable position. These RFP documents are usually a collection of individual requirements, gathered from submissions made by multiple individuals within the organisation.

There has long been a number of reasons why smaller field service businesses have an advantage over larger businesses, but these have been countered by some disadvantages. Here in 2022, there is however one major disadvantage that has been removed (we’ll come to that at the end).

Date: Tuesday, April 11th  2017

Solarvista are pleased to announce that leading HVAC supplier Thermodial has selected Solarvista to provide an integrated customer-service focussed ERP / field service solution.

Date: Tuesday, June 20 to Thursday, June 22, 2017

A specialist in delivering commercial building maintenance, DMG Delta’s core philosophy is to deliver flexible and high quality services to their customers. From their offices in Stansted, Essex and London, DMG offer services that include heating, electrics, air conditioning, plumbing and water treatment. These services are suitable for buildings of all sizes, whether they are commercial, residential, municipal or industrial.

Work scheduling and diary planning is one area of field service that’s done in very different ways from industry to industry. Even within the same industries, planning and work scheduling can be done very differently from one business to the next.

At Solarvista we’re fiercely proud to deliver the very best in field service management software and it is our independence that enables us to maintain the single minded focus needed to achieve this goal so successfully. We do not have conflicting interests, from the board room to the front desk our manager is ‘the task in hand’ – to develop and supply the very best field service management software.

The BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”) debate is one that has received much coverage in recent months with some in the service sector as well as other industries arguing that BYOD is the only way forward for businesses looking to compete effectively and offer the most efficient customer service and increased employee satisfaction. But what is BYOD? What is the impact on the business, the workers, and the customers?

The BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”) debate is one that has received much coverage in recent months with some in the service sector as well as other industries arguing that BYOD is the only way forward for businesses looking to compete effectively and offer the most efficient customer service and increased employee satisfaction. But what is BYOD? What is the impact on the business, the workers, and the customers?

I suppose I have always been a “power user” when it came to phones. I’d moved from an old “feature phone” to a “smartphone” way back when the Windows Mobile/Pocket PC phones came out, notably in my case an O2 XDA. It seemed to be the way forward but then when Apple launched the iPhone, it was such a dramatic jump in ease of use, compared to a stylus (yes, stylus – seems bizarre now!) driven phone to a finger/touch driven phone. It made everything so easy… photos, web and especially music. And installing apps became so easy (compared to copying over ‘installer’ exe files and “running” them).

At Solarvista, we launched our first mobile app way back in 2002, called Mobile Worker. It was designed to operate as field service mobile application with our existing field service management back office ERP suite. It did it very well. But… that’s all it did. Yes, you could receive jobs. Yes, you could order parts. Yes, you could capture signatures, take pictures etc. And it worked offline as well as online. In fact it did all of the things that we could think that service technicians wanted to do. It was (and still is) a great application. In fact, it’s used to this day for thousands of users.

Leading edge practitioners have long recognised that effective visible inventory management and stock control are very different from simple inventory reduction. As a result of a sophisticated inventory management system, a world class cost-effective service operation can differentiate itself from the competition, lower costs and drive up customer satisfaction.

We are pleased to announce the general availability of the Business Edition of Solarvista LIVE/X9, the cloud-based Field Service Software and Mobile apps solution.